Note: Men's basketball columnist Avi Zaleon is on a plane from Portland, Ore. at the moment and unable to access the internet. He wrote this column for fun and wished it to be uploaded now. Enjoy:
It was the Hoosiers' turn to be the bad guy.
IU has thrived in the underdog role this season, but Saturday, it was time to reverse roles and squash the feel-good story.
And honestly, how could America not fall in love with Coach Shaka Smart and his VCU team again?
A year removed from their magical run to the Final Four, the Rams seemed to be at it again.
The script was coming together beautifully.
Smart, the young, up-and-coming coach, who is adored by his players and the media, fended off questions about coaching vacancies at bigger schools (come to think of it, he was wearing an orange and blue tie on Thursday...).
With Smart at the helm, the Rams were a squad that emphasized the values preached in high school gyms across the country. "Havoc," they call it. 40 minutes of give-it-everything-you-got defense, hustle and determination.
Need proof? Smart puts his players through what he calls, "The Ironman Drill." A rigorous routine that requires an individual to take a charge, save a ball from going out of bounds and then fight for a loose ball. All three. Without stopping.
And of course, Smart puts himself through this, just as he expects from his players.
So the cast is set, now onto setting the scene.
The Rams, who inherited an 11-seed in last year's Tournament, received a 12-seed this time around.
VCU began its run by defeating 5th-seeded Wichita State in the first round, 62-59.
Here we go again. The magic was still there for the lovable underdogs from Richmond, Va.
Somebody even gave Smart the right movie script.
"I know we're playing the Hoosiers, but I'll reference the movie 'Hoosiers,'" Smart said Friday, prior to his game against IU. "They talked about in the movie, the baskets are still 10 feet. The court is still the same length. Nothing has changed."
The next Goliath for this David was IU.
On gameday, the pageantry surrounding the Hoosiers was everywhere. The Hoosiers entered the court in the same signature candy stripe warm-up pants, to the tune of the same fight song behind flags displaying the same logo, all which have graced this Tournament for decades.
If IU was the preppy, popular high school jock, VCU was the hipster playing with his Hackey Sack during lunch.
The Rams, who have appeared in the Big Dance 11 times with the first coming in 1980, just had a different aura about them.
Their fans wore yellow and black checkerboard Cat in the Hat hats. The VCU pep band was purposely loud and obnoxious, with their conductor ripping off his suit and tie to reveal a Superman t-shirt. Their main song was soulful and included a period of just vocals -- a far cry from anything John Philip Sousa ever had in mind.
"You don't want to go to waaaaaaar with the Raaaaaaaams," over and over again the VCU section sang throughout the game. "Don't start no stuff, won't be no stuff."
Oh, the grammatical humanity!
The Hoosiers were able to grab an early lead thanks to a handful of thunderous dunks. Then Smart's team came roaring back to go up by as much as nine in the second half. But a determined IU squad, which had been through trials of its own, crept back into the game late, ultimately taking a two-point lead with 12.7 seconds left on a Will Sheehey jumper.
The final scene was set.
Just enough time was left on the clock for VCU to tie or win the game on its final possession. Everybody was in the places.
Ready?
Action!
The Rams drove the ball up the court -- everything was going as planned -- VCU guard Rob Brandenburg, stationed beyond the 3-point arc, hoisted a potential game-winning shot.
This was how the story would be told. Perfect, a game-winning shot to sink the Hoosiers and continue this magical run. The networks would get the footage they wanted.
But somehow the final page of the script got torn out and rewritten. The ball bounced off the rim and into IU's hands for the win.
The Hoosiers extinguished the dream of Smart, VCU senior guard Bradford Burgess and the a small school.
It was a role IU has played in the past, but has had reversed on it recently.
Now it would seem the Hoosiers are back to being the bad guys, at least until Friday when the an even bigger villain in blue awaits them.
